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[Alex Waterston]

Alright dudes,
I realise I've never posted here before but I thought I'd pop this in here anyway just in case anyone is interested.
I'm starting a series of one day design challenges.
Rules are simple:
1. There's a theme.
2. Use the theme in a short game design description.
2a. The game can be of any genre, type, style, size or complexity.
2b. You have 24 hours (give or take a wee bit) to submit the design.
3. Send me the design and I'll put it on the Internets with relevant credits for everyone to peruse and comment upon.
3a. Designs will be made public so don't send in designs that you love more than life or want to really use for real.

The aim is to get interesting, innovative and truly original game designs and to invigorate your design glands.

Let me know if you want to take part so  I can include you on the challenge emails. The first one starts tomorrow.

Designs will be posted up here:
http://gamedesignr.tumblr.com/

[JLJac]

Quite nice idea! Problem is I love all my designs a lot more than life itself... I'll see if I can come up with something. Will hold an eye on this one

[Alex Waterston]

I'll post up tomorrow's challenge here and then anyone that wants to share their lovely design juices for the common masses to sup upon can.

[Alex Waterston]

Hehe, after a rousing round of replies (well ok, one but at least it was a nice one!) I've decided that I'll just post the challenge here anyway and see if anyone bites. So far quite a few industry professional designers have signed up and, if they pull their fingers out and submit something, then this hopefully will be quite an interesting exercise! Details are on the website: gamedc.tumblr.com
Here is the current challenge directly from the site:

Game Design Challenge #1: Shopping
This is the first 24 Hour Game Design Challenge. The idea is simple - design a game in 24 hours around the theme provided and send it to me. I’ll put it up here for the world to praise, love and desire. You don’t need to do a lot of work - a one sheet, some back-of-the-box flavour text, a list of features, a paragraph explaining the idea - any of these would be enough. Innovation is king here; we’re not looking for ideas that have a guaranteed target audience or market. Do what you want and see what comes of it.

And so, on to the first 24 Hour Game Design Challenge…

As Christmas approaches and the shops become busier and the sales more credit crunchy the first 24 Hour Game Design Challenge Key Theme seemed an obvious choice. So create a design to delight even the most cynical of recession junkies and, if you can manage it without compromising the clarity of your exquisite vision, squeeze the Bonus Objective in there too.
We’re starting gently to give your design gumption time to warm up on this brisk wintery day. Create, design and be innovative, but most of all have fun; if you enjoy designing it then at least one person will probably enjoy playing it.

Today’s Key Theme is: Shopping
Just one Bonus Objective today: Power-ups

Have an exciting day and much good luck,

Alex

[Alex Waterston]

I forgot to mention that I'll accept entries up until midnight tomorrow (the 3rd) GMT which should give everyone enough time to get 24 hours (at least!).

[Alex Waterston]

Hehe, last ditch attempt at interesting other people in this....
The first 4 designs are up for your viewing pleasure.
Titles include Hulk Smash Trolley Dash, Stereotypical Shopper and 'Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Once again, if anyone feels like entering just send me your design and I'll post it up.

[Hajo]

I'd like to post something encouraging here, since I really like the idea of such a design challenge.

Yet, I'm so completely out of ideas even for my own projects, that all are on a hiatus since months. So I cannot contribute anything here, but some encouraging words that I think it's a good try to spawn, collect and publish interesting design ideas

[Alex Waterston]

Yay! An encouraging post!
Thank you!

[agj]

Just to break the silence a bit, I don't dislike your idea, moggy, but, for one, I find 24 hours too long, as it feels like enough to make a rather complex design. An hour would feel more like a challenge, and like something not to be taken as some form of truly complete design--you know, like scribbles on a napkin. In fact, 'napkin design documents' does feel much more like a deal to me. And I guess I don't feel compelled to waste a day creating a design document that no one is going to use.

edit: Also, you're passing these as your own in that blog, aren't you? I mean, there's no names, other than (I presume) your own, up on top.

[Alex Waterston]

Hmmmmm... balls. That's the wrong url up there.
Thanks for noticing that!
That's my own list of designs hence having my name at the top.
The actual design challenge site is:
http://gamedc.tumblr.com

Knickers!
Each entry has it's author at the bottom including where they're from and what they do (if I know).

Sorry about the confusion there.

As for 1 hour competitions - this was my original idea for quite a while but there was a problem: it's hard to regulate. I suppose I can call them 1 hour design challenges and let people regulate their own times (which suits me absolutely fine!) but I can't ensure that everyone is around for one hour at the same time because the entrants are all over the god damned place.
Anyway, I'll probably actually make the next one a week long and hope that the entries from this time around will show people that only a very small amount of work is required.
I knocked up Hulk Smash Trolley Dash in about 45 minutes and I know that most of the other entrants took less time than that.

Ok, hope that's cleared up some of (my self-made!) mess.

Alex
gamedc.tumblr.com

[agj]

Ah, well, that explains it. :)

You know about the Klik of the Month Klub? That's how you make a short challenge!

edit: Actually, I think I just have a problem with the '24 hours' name. It could be something like 'improvised game designs', with a 24 hour deadline for submission. The name just kind of set the Ludum Dare mindframe for me. Maybe I'll try submitting something next time.

[Alex Waterston]

Alright, duly noted! I will bear in mind that when I start the new challenge.
I'll probably set a longer time limit (it seems a lot of people are favouring a week) but try to stress harder that your design shouldn't take longer than an hour to do and that you have a week to submit, not an entire week for designing!

Maybe I'll try Rapid Game Design Challenge or Speedy Game Design Challenge or Ultra-Mega-FAST Game Design Challenge?
I like 'Improvised Game Designs' but I feel that it's a little bit ambiguous. We shall see though!

Thanks again for your input. Lots for my brain to munch on from lots of different sources.

[eddietree]

Hmmmmm... balls.

That's what she said

[Alex Waterston]

Hmmmmm... balls.

That's what she said

That's what they both said.
"There's one each. Enjoy." that's what I said.

[eddietree]

Hmmmmm... balls.

That's what she said

That's what they both said.
"There's one each. Enjoy." that's what I said.

That's what moggy said.